death metal
10-27-2004, 06:51 PM
MSI 915G Combo
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Motherboard
DM
Foreword:
This is just a short article for those wanting to venture into the new socket.
The target audience would be those wanting a good motherboard locally available, going for a new socket, preparing for PCIe, and willing to use the integrated graphics until better discrete video solution becomes available.
I. Introduction:
MSI have already made a name in their good line of products, they offer a wide range of DIY parts, from the gamer to the casual PC user. For this article, I’ll be focusing on their affordable motherboard offering, a motherboard that not only performs right out of the box, but also did well with overclocking.
Motherboard: http://www.msi.com.tw/images/product_img/mbd_img/7058.jpg
The MSI 915G Combo is among MSI’s early offering for the LGA775 series of Intel processor. As the name imply, the MSI 915G Combo (which we’ll start referring to as 915G) is partnered with a solid Intel 915G chipset, with onboard graphics with DX 9.0 capability, it is also supporting DDR1/DDR2 in Dual Channel Mode, 800FSB, one (1) PCIe x16, two (2) PCIe x1, two (2) PCI v2.3 and USB 2.0 among others. The board is feature loaded with onboard goodies such as 4 Serial ATA/150 ports, 1 channel Ultra ATA 100 IDE, 8channel audio, a gigabit LAN port, SPDIF-Out and a special add-on D-Bracket 2 exclusive for MSI.
Main Specifications:
(*) Processor, Intel Socket 775 Pentium 4 Prescott Processors
(*) Chipset, Intel 915G/ICH6
(*) FSB, 800/533/400
(*) VGA, standard VGA port
(*) Memory, 2 DDR1 DIMMS, up to 2GB
(*) Memory, 2 DDR2 DIMMS, up to 2GB
(*) Expansion Slots, 1 PCIe x16 and 2 PCIe x1, 2 PCI v2.3
(*) Onboard IDE, Single Ultra DMA 66/100; Quad Serial ATA/150
(*) USB 2.0, 4 rear panel, 2 headers supporting 4 ports (8 total)
(*) Audio, 8-channel Azalia
(*) NIC, 10/100/1000 Realtek in rear panel
Detailed Motherboard Specification List: http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=604
Packaging:
While the MSI 865PE Neo2-P I reviewed a while back is very attractive, this is one is rather simple, reminiscent of the older i875 packaging. The blue colors is ok, not boring, but still, not very catching.
Packaging and Motherboard(small/big): http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g12.gif, http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g12.jpg
The package comes with a decent number of goodies: a floppy and IDE round cable, SATA cable, a D-Bracket 2, user’s manual, standard IO Shield, a floppy containing VIA RAID driver and of course, the CD that contains the software driver and other utilities.
Board Layout:
Layout (small/big): http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g00.gif, http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g00.jpg
The 915G has a busy board layout, with most of the parts looking like they are packed together to save realty space. The mosfets around the CPU socket has tall aluminum heatsink in them, labeled ActiveMOS. I really don’t like the number of capacitors on the top portion side of the retention clip. While they didn’t hamper installation of stock hsf, it’s too near for comfort, get in the way when using aftermarket heatsinks. As is now standard, there’s no retention clip since the stock HSF use push-on clips.
Moving on to the Northbridge, the board has a very dull aluminum passive heatsink. The only reason I can think of why this NB heatsink is so dull compared to, for example, 865PE Neo2-P, is the fact that it’s a non-expensive motherboard, not really geared for extreme overclocking. However, looking at their offering, even the i925x which is the top of the line they have to offer, really have this super dull passive heatsink. I mean, what’s wrong with the bigger and better looking heatsink they used to put on the Neo2-P series. I guess, I just got spoiled by their previous offering.
DDR1/DDR2 (small/big): http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g02.gif, http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g02.jpg
Just besides the Northbridge are the DIMM slots. There are four DIMM slots, which functions as Dual Channel. However, it is important to note that they are now two flavors. You can use DDR1, or DDR2 but not both. They are aptly colored so as identify activation of Dual Channel configuration. The placement is good enough that it will not hamper installation of monster video cards. There’s also enough room between slots that populating all four will pose no problem, even with RAM that has heatspreaders.
Northbridge, and LGA775 (small/big): http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g05.gif, http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g05.jpg
If you decide to forego the onboard graphics, you can install even monster video cards on this board with little or no problem at all. There is enough clearance between the Northbridge heatsink and the PCIe x16 slot, while the PCIe x1 slot shouldn’t post much of a problem, well, at least for now that not much add-on card is being released on the market.
The PCI card locations are pretty much standard. I see no immediate problem in here.
PCI, PCIe x1, PCIe x16 (small/big): http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g04.gif, http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g04.jpg
The Southbridge have a passive heatsink. This is a good place to add any of your fancy cooling fans, or replace it with your favorite hsf cooler.
Southbridge (small/big): http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g03.gif, http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g03.jpg
The location of the ATX 12v power is trivial, following most of the other high end boards I’ve seen and played with, it still uses the old 4ping 12v power connector. However, the ATX power connector is now a 24pin one, but still compatible with the older ATX PSU standard. It is situated nicely on the left side, just besides the DIMM slots.
ATX 24pin with ATX 20pin connector: http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/atx24pin.jpg
Below the DIMM slots is the single IDE connectors, and four SATA ports, and also the VIA IDE RAID connector. Trailing the bottom side of the board, the front panel power and LED headers are situated nice and comfy, along with additional two USB headers.
The 915G comes standard with the following ports in the rear panel: PS/2 keyboard and mouse, SPDIF-Output, 4x USB 2.0, 1x Gigabit Realtek LAN port, 8 analog audio ports, a VGA port, and the standard serial and parallel ports.
I don’t like the location of the front panel connector for audio. I can’t believe that the front connector will be situated at the bottom left rear of the motherboard.
Bios:
MSI use the popular AMI Bios for the 915G. The bios is customized for tweaking, offering many options to play with. I’ll be covering only the portion relevant to this aspect.
The Frequency/Voltage Control is now called Cell_Menu, where most of the tweaking is done to overclock the CPU. Voltage adjustment, memory frequency, fsb settings, and others are all conveniently situated here. However, the memory timing is separated under the Advanced Chipset section.
It has a limited set of dividers (at least for DDR1), offering only DDR333 and DDR400. I have yet to see the dividers for DDR2.
Bios Offerings: http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/mainbios.jpg
II. Overclocking the board:
Test Systems:
The following system configuration were used for the benchmark.
(*) Intel Pentium 4 3.0 D0 Stepping
(*) Geil 2x256Mb PC4000 Ultra Platinum Dual Channel Kit
(*) 80Gb Hitachi IDE
(*) 52x LG DVD ROM
(*) Optional Inno3d FX5300 128Mb
(*) Sony Floppy Drive
(*) Enermax EG465 ATX
(*) Coolermaster CM Stacker
The benchmark software used will be based on the following:
(*) AquaMark
(*) SiSoft Sandra
(*) 3DMark05
(*) 3DMark03
(*) 3DMark01Se
(*) PCMark04
(*) SuperPi
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Motherboard
DM
Foreword:
This is just a short article for those wanting to venture into the new socket.
The target audience would be those wanting a good motherboard locally available, going for a new socket, preparing for PCIe, and willing to use the integrated graphics until better discrete video solution becomes available.
I. Introduction:
MSI have already made a name in their good line of products, they offer a wide range of DIY parts, from the gamer to the casual PC user. For this article, I’ll be focusing on their affordable motherboard offering, a motherboard that not only performs right out of the box, but also did well with overclocking.
Motherboard: http://www.msi.com.tw/images/product_img/mbd_img/7058.jpg
The MSI 915G Combo is among MSI’s early offering for the LGA775 series of Intel processor. As the name imply, the MSI 915G Combo (which we’ll start referring to as 915G) is partnered with a solid Intel 915G chipset, with onboard graphics with DX 9.0 capability, it is also supporting DDR1/DDR2 in Dual Channel Mode, 800FSB, one (1) PCIe x16, two (2) PCIe x1, two (2) PCI v2.3 and USB 2.0 among others. The board is feature loaded with onboard goodies such as 4 Serial ATA/150 ports, 1 channel Ultra ATA 100 IDE, 8channel audio, a gigabit LAN port, SPDIF-Out and a special add-on D-Bracket 2 exclusive for MSI.
Main Specifications:
(*) Processor, Intel Socket 775 Pentium 4 Prescott Processors
(*) Chipset, Intel 915G/ICH6
(*) FSB, 800/533/400
(*) VGA, standard VGA port
(*) Memory, 2 DDR1 DIMMS, up to 2GB
(*) Memory, 2 DDR2 DIMMS, up to 2GB
(*) Expansion Slots, 1 PCIe x16 and 2 PCIe x1, 2 PCI v2.3
(*) Onboard IDE, Single Ultra DMA 66/100; Quad Serial ATA/150
(*) USB 2.0, 4 rear panel, 2 headers supporting 4 ports (8 total)
(*) Audio, 8-channel Azalia
(*) NIC, 10/100/1000 Realtek in rear panel
Detailed Motherboard Specification List: http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=604
Packaging:
While the MSI 865PE Neo2-P I reviewed a while back is very attractive, this is one is rather simple, reminiscent of the older i875 packaging. The blue colors is ok, not boring, but still, not very catching.
Packaging and Motherboard(small/big): http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g12.gif, http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g12.jpg
The package comes with a decent number of goodies: a floppy and IDE round cable, SATA cable, a D-Bracket 2, user’s manual, standard IO Shield, a floppy containing VIA RAID driver and of course, the CD that contains the software driver and other utilities.
Board Layout:
Layout (small/big): http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g00.gif, http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g00.jpg
The 915G has a busy board layout, with most of the parts looking like they are packed together to save realty space. The mosfets around the CPU socket has tall aluminum heatsink in them, labeled ActiveMOS. I really don’t like the number of capacitors on the top portion side of the retention clip. While they didn’t hamper installation of stock hsf, it’s too near for comfort, get in the way when using aftermarket heatsinks. As is now standard, there’s no retention clip since the stock HSF use push-on clips.
Moving on to the Northbridge, the board has a very dull aluminum passive heatsink. The only reason I can think of why this NB heatsink is so dull compared to, for example, 865PE Neo2-P, is the fact that it’s a non-expensive motherboard, not really geared for extreme overclocking. However, looking at their offering, even the i925x which is the top of the line they have to offer, really have this super dull passive heatsink. I mean, what’s wrong with the bigger and better looking heatsink they used to put on the Neo2-P series. I guess, I just got spoiled by their previous offering.
DDR1/DDR2 (small/big): http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g02.gif, http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g02.jpg
Just besides the Northbridge are the DIMM slots. There are four DIMM slots, which functions as Dual Channel. However, it is important to note that they are now two flavors. You can use DDR1, or DDR2 but not both. They are aptly colored so as identify activation of Dual Channel configuration. The placement is good enough that it will not hamper installation of monster video cards. There’s also enough room between slots that populating all four will pose no problem, even with RAM that has heatspreaders.
Northbridge, and LGA775 (small/big): http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g05.gif, http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g05.jpg
If you decide to forego the onboard graphics, you can install even monster video cards on this board with little or no problem at all. There is enough clearance between the Northbridge heatsink and the PCIe x16 slot, while the PCIe x1 slot shouldn’t post much of a problem, well, at least for now that not much add-on card is being released on the market.
The PCI card locations are pretty much standard. I see no immediate problem in here.
PCI, PCIe x1, PCIe x16 (small/big): http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g04.gif, http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g04.jpg
The Southbridge have a passive heatsink. This is a good place to add any of your fancy cooling fans, or replace it with your favorite hsf cooler.
Southbridge (small/big): http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g03.gif, http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/msi915g03.jpg
The location of the ATX 12v power is trivial, following most of the other high end boards I’ve seen and played with, it still uses the old 4ping 12v power connector. However, the ATX power connector is now a 24pin one, but still compatible with the older ATX PSU standard. It is situated nicely on the left side, just besides the DIMM slots.
ATX 24pin with ATX 20pin connector: http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/atx24pin.jpg
Below the DIMM slots is the single IDE connectors, and four SATA ports, and also the VIA IDE RAID connector. Trailing the bottom side of the board, the front panel power and LED headers are situated nice and comfy, along with additional two USB headers.
The 915G comes standard with the following ports in the rear panel: PS/2 keyboard and mouse, SPDIF-Output, 4x USB 2.0, 1x Gigabit Realtek LAN port, 8 analog audio ports, a VGA port, and the standard serial and parallel ports.
I don’t like the location of the front panel connector for audio. I can’t believe that the front connector will be situated at the bottom left rear of the motherboard.
Bios:
MSI use the popular AMI Bios for the 915G. The bios is customized for tweaking, offering many options to play with. I’ll be covering only the portion relevant to this aspect.
The Frequency/Voltage Control is now called Cell_Menu, where most of the tweaking is done to overclock the CPU. Voltage adjustment, memory frequency, fsb settings, and others are all conveniently situated here. However, the memory timing is separated under the Advanced Chipset section.
It has a limited set of dividers (at least for DDR1), offering only DDR333 and DDR400. I have yet to see the dividers for DDR2.
Bios Offerings: http://sleektech.nl/~dm/temp/msi915g/mainbios.jpg
II. Overclocking the board:
Test Systems:
The following system configuration were used for the benchmark.
(*) Intel Pentium 4 3.0 D0 Stepping
(*) Geil 2x256Mb PC4000 Ultra Platinum Dual Channel Kit
(*) 80Gb Hitachi IDE
(*) 52x LG DVD ROM
(*) Optional Inno3d FX5300 128Mb
(*) Sony Floppy Drive
(*) Enermax EG465 ATX
(*) Coolermaster CM Stacker
The benchmark software used will be based on the following:
(*) AquaMark
(*) SiSoft Sandra
(*) 3DMark05
(*) 3DMark03
(*) 3DMark01Se
(*) PCMark04
(*) SuperPi